New Official – Judy Habecker

I just received word from the USAWA Official’s Director Joe Garcia that Judy Habecker has passed the USAWA Rules Exam and is now a Level 1 Test Qualified USAWA Official. I just placed Judy’s name on our ever growing list of officials. I now feel sorry for the lifters in Habeckers Gym, because with Judy in the chair there won’t be any “shoddy” lifts passed. When I was sitting by Judy at our past USAWA Nationals (I was the announcer and she was the scorekeeper), it was obvious to me that Judy had a keen sense of the rules. She ALWAYS KNEW what the infraction was when a lift wasn’t passed. A few times she felt that certain shouldn’t have been passed! (and a couple of times it was when her husband Denny was lifting! haha). Like I said already, I now feel sorry for the lifters in Habeckers Gym! I know Judy will make a great judge, and all I can say is IT IS ABOUT TIME she became an USAWA official! There has been some confusion in the past with the thinking you must be a competitive lifter to be an official. This is just not true. There is NOTHING in our rules or bylaws saying this must be the case. I’m not inferring that Judy is not a competitive lifter either – she often makes a least one appearance to the platform every year. She has USAWA records dating back to 2001, and is the holder of 30 USAWA Records. She is most proud of her 304 pound 12″ base deadlift done at the 2005 Gold Cup in Hawaii.